It's this sentence that gets me:
"Pepper is looking to either sell its distro or open source it, although even the latter route requires resources that seem to be in very short supply right now"

This is what open source is all about? Getting work for free?

I always thought that open source meant slave labour(work with no pay), and depending on the age of the developers you have possible child labour. Anyone else have thoughts on this? Both for and against?

It's not the only reason, but it's certainly become a compelling one. There is a definite trend of using "Open sourcing" as a synonym for "end of lifeing". If you can't afford to pay developers because you just can't turn a profit, there is a certain amount
of good publicity and mileage in making it "open source", even if your intention is to effectively shelve it.

Harlequin wrote:﻿
This is what open source is all about? Getting work for free?

It's about doing what you like to do and sharing it with others.

So you'd happily work on an open source project, knowing the company running it will take your work, and make money off it, none of which you receive? We're not talking about a join project like the FCKEditor or something that grows with it's developer base.
This is a corporation opening things up in order to get work done on their projects that cost them nothing.

﻿So you'd happily work on an open source project, knowing the company running it will take your work, and make money off it, none of which you receive? We're not talking about a join project like the FCKEditor or something that grows
with it's developer base. This is a corporation opening things up in order to get work done on their projects that cost them nothing.

Ahh... but when you open source a project there is no guarentee that they will get the amount of developers they are looking for, especially if the incentives are poor yet the company has money to spend on developers.

Even if developers aren't paid, everyone gets something: free access to the software source code and the ability to use it freely and port, fork it, etc. Now there is no requirement that open source be free as in cost, but if there is an access cost, open source
developer and user interest associated with the project will be next to null.

Harlequin wrote:﻿
This is what open source is all about? Getting work for free?

It's about doing what you like to do and sharing it with others.

So you'd happily work on an open source project, knowing the company running it will take your work, and make money off it, none of which you receive? We're not talking about a join project like the FCKEditor or something that grows with it's developer base.
This is a corporation opening things up in order to get work done on their projects that cost them nothing.

It depends on your perspective. Here's a hypothetical story. You write boring software because the job was there when you were job hunting. What you really want to do is work on operating systems. You don't know much about them but are eager to learn. You can
start tinkering with Linux or OpenSolaris, figure out what makes them tick, and write a cool feature. Next time you look for a job you can say "I wrote xyz for Solaris/Linux" and with an operating system background, you have a better chance of getting hired.
In this case, you benefit by gaining knowledge and experience and getting a job you want and Sun benefits by getting your feature.

Harlequin wrote:﻿
This is what open source is all about? Getting work for free?

It's about doing what you like to do and sharing it with others.

So you'd happily work on an open source project, knowing the company running it will take your work, and make money off it, none of which you receive? We're not talking about a join project like the FCKEditor or something that grows with it's developer base.
This is a corporation opening things up in order to get work done on their projects that cost them nothing.

It depends on your perspective. Here's a hypothetical story. You write boring software because the job was there when you were job hunting. What you really want to do is work on operating systems. You don't know much about them but are eager to learn. You can
start tinkering with Linux or OpenSolaris, figure out what makes them tick, and write a cool feature. Next time you look for a job you can say "I wrote xyz for Solaris/Linux" and with an operating system background, you have a better chance of getting hired.
In this case, you benefit by gaining knowledge and experience and getting a job you want and Sun benefits by getting your feature.

Harlequin wrote:﻿
This is what open source is all about? Getting work for free?

It's about doing what you like to do and sharing it with others.

So you'd happily work on an open source project, knowing the company running it will take your work, and make money off it, none of which you receive? We're not talking about a join project like the FCKEditor or something that grows with it's developer base.
This is a corporation opening things up in order to get work done on their projects that cost them nothing.

It depends on your perspective. Here's a hypothetical story. You write boring software because the job was there when you were job hunting. What you really want to do is work on operating systems. You don't know much about them but are eager to learn. You can
start tinkering with Linux or OpenSolaris, figure out what makes them tick, and write a cool feature. Next time you look for a job you can say "I wrote xyz for Solaris/Linux" and with an operating system background, you have a better chance of getting hired.
In this case, you benefit by gaining knowledge and experience and getting a job you want and Sun benefits by getting your feature.

Some people don't realize that to get ahead in the world, sometimes you have to step back and stop worrying about getting ahead. And in the end, it isn't even about getting ahead in abstract terms like money but being able to live the life you want. If you
worry too much about "I deserve this" or "This is coming to me" when its not necessary, you're going to create a lot of conflict and paralyzation in your life that you don't need. Stop being assertive, and start being smart.

Some people don't realize that to get ahead in the world, sometimes you have to step back and stop worrying about getting ahead. And in the end, it isn't even about getting ahead in abstract terms like money but being able to live the life you want. If you
worry too much about "I deserve this" or "This is coming to me" when its not necessary, you're going to create a lot of conflict and paralyzation in your life that you don't need. Stop being assertive, and start being smart.

Wow! Thanks for this post! I think this is a great way to deal with a lot of stuff in general...

Some people don't realize that to get ahead in the world, sometimes you have to step back and stop worrying about getting ahead. And in the end, it isn't even about getting ahead in abstract terms like money but being able to live the life you want. If you
worry too much about "I deserve this" or "This is coming to me" when its not necessary, you're going to create a lot of conflict and paralyzation in your life that you don't need. Stop being assertive, and start being smart.

I said no such thing. Nor did I agree that it was slave labor.

I'm glad that you like it as a hobby. I, personally, have a dayjob developing, so I don't like to develop for free, after work.

But I do enjoy farking around on my machine after work, and as you said, the ability to relax and just live is wonderful.

A lot of people who write open source code are, like you, developers by day. What makes the quality of their work inferior to yours?

For starters, the lack of a support infrastructure? There are always going to be exceptions, but if I have a problem with product X, I'd better be able to solve it myself, because I sure can't call a 1-800 number and get support.

But that is beyond the point I'm trying to make. Look up the difference between professional and amateur and try not to drag negative or positive connotations into it.